Glenn Beck Wants You To Give Up National Parks, Forests And Monuments To Fight His War On Progressives

If you’re keeping a tally, you need to add national parks, forests and monuments to the list of things Glenn Beck wants YOU to forgo in order to help HIM fight his war on progressives. Maybe the west, too, though Beck doesn’t seem to know where it is. That list already includes Social Security and Medicare, your automobile and, if you live in rural America, your hopes for high speed broadband. As we have come to expect, Beck did not mention a thing he planned to sacrifice. He also did not mention the ways in which our sacrifices would just happen to further enrich him by easing his high-bracket tax bill. Oh, and it’s time to give up that commie song, “This Land Is Your Land.” In its place, we can all eat $44 pies. With video. UPDATED

As usual, instead of reasoned argument or even kind cajoling for his cause, Beck used inflammatory rhetoric designed to frighten and then enrage. “Our house is on fire! Our country is on fire! It’s an inferno!” He forgot to point out that he’s doing all he can to fan the flames.

“I know YOU are standing ready to fight a fire,” Beck said in his hushed, sincere voice. It was a sure sign that he was going to ratchet up the fear mongering and the hate mongering and then, in the name of patriotism, liberty and saving our country, slip in suggestions that you should sacrifice for his cause while masquerading as a fighter on your behalf.

First, however, Beck took a few shots at Rep. Massa, suggesting that all the blame for the disastrous interview was his fault, not Beck’s. “Man, how do people sleep at night?” Beck said, shaking his head. Good question.

But soon it was back to Beck’s usual targets – and hate mongering. Swaying back and forth, he said, “Tonight, I’m going to show you and tell you a story of a government that is staging a full-fledged control assault on our country.” With even more hammy sincerity, he added, “As much as I wish this weren’t true, every day that goes by, the evidence mounts up… I don’t want to be right on this!” Well, good news, then. Because much of what Beck said was simply a crock.

First, though, it was time to begin his assault on national parks, forests and monuments. Oh, and the west. Beck displayed a large map of the country showing land owned by the federal government. “Before the progressive era, THIS (he gestured to the west, where most of the federal lands are) was not part of really America. The west, it was still being conquered. It was still being settled. Then the progressives came in.” After complaining that much of Nevada, Alaska, etc. are owned by the federal government, Beck added, “Compare that to the east!” He included Texas as part of that group. “Texas is 2% federally owned land… You know why? …Because the Texans will say, ‘Get off my land!’”

Memo to Beck: Most people consider Texaspart of the west. In fact, I suspect that if Beck were to tell a Texan they were part of the east, they’d tell him, ‘Get off my land.’”

Just to show he’s an equal opportunity America basher, “I love my country so much I’d cry for it” Beck said, “In Connecticut and New Jersey, you know why they’re not protecting all that land? Because it’s a rat hole.”

Beck went on to point out that much of our country’s natural resources are on government-owned land. Without investigating what the government does with the natural resources and consider what might happen if they were not protected, Beck asked, “What would happen if we tapped these natural resources? Who are we saving these for?”

Apparently, Beck understands federal lands even less than he does the west. Otherwise, he’d know that drilling, grazing, removal of minerals and logging operations are currently part of the federal land management process along with conservation. Or maybe Beck does know and he thought it more convenient for his hate-mongering to leave that information out.

Instead, Beck declaimed that we are going to go down in history as “a suicidal nation” because we won’t give up conservation and throw open everything to unfettered business interests. Not that any drilling or grazing is likely to interrupt the peace and quiet at Beck's estate in that "rathole," Connecticut.

“Who’s better? Is Vladimir Putin better at protecting Alaska or the United States of America? How about China? When we go bankrupt, who’s going to protect this land? China or us? This is a suicide mission that we are on,” said our Fearmonger-in-Chief.

Then it was time for some more dissembling – via some hate mongering. Beck held up a memo he claimed had been leaked, supposedly showing the Obama administration “pursuing… 13 million acres… in the west, all in the name of national monuments.”

“Maybe we can get a national monument of Chairman Mao!” Beck sneered. “How about one of Stalin? …How many more monuments do we need?”

Then Beck picked up on the phony claim that Obama wants to ban fishing – nicely debunked by Media Matters – that was really just another not-so-thinly veiled attack on environmentalists, part of the progressives Beck hates so much. “A new report out today says it's a move to appease the environmental groups, and just like before, without your consent, done in darkness by executive order. I told you a year ago this would happen. I'm not some prophet by any stretch of the imaginations. The New York Times said this man would do this. The report claims that Obama will no longer listen to the public as he tries to prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing on some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, and great lakes, even some inland waters. No more fishing. Really? Yeah, apparently some environmentalists want to save the fish. Forget about the frickin' fish. People are losing their rights. Who's more important: the fish or you?”

Instead of discussing what was in the leaked memo or offering the other side of the story, as Fox News' “fair and balanced,” and “we report, you decide” mottos would suggest, Beck waved the piece of paper like Joseph McCarthy and, in the best McCarthy tradition, moved on to attack the folk song “This Land Is Your Land” as a communist manifesto propagandizing children. According to Beck, one of his producers sang the song in a meeting earlier in the day “and it all just clicked in my head. I said, ‘Look up the dates that this stupid song was written.’ …1940. Gee, what was happening in America in 1940? Woody Guthrie wrote this. Woody Guthrie, communist.” All said with Beckian histrionics. It’s no secret that Guthrie was a communist but Beck acted as though he were revealing something new.

The real object was to make his viewers think that there are communists running the country. Without providing any real proof beyond Beck’s say so by suggestion. “Land grabs are where we’re at today!... Grab all the rights you can! …How about health care! …The Soviets called health care a right!”

From there, Beck launched into a tirade against health care reform. Instead of letting his viewers get the idea that health care reform might lead to - well, health care, Beck led them to believe it would lead to the food police outlawing treats. One of the foods Beck suggested might soon be banned was a “fatty fat fat pie” he slobbered over, singing, “This pie is made for you and me.” Yet after yelling that health care is not a right, that health care reform would be bad for us, Beck made it clear that the pie was really only for the elites he pretends not to be part of and not likely to be in the budget of everyday Americans. “This pie is… $44 a pie… Worth every dime.”

UPDATE:Media Matters reports that there is no plan by the Obama administration to grab 13 million acres of land. "The allegations are reportedly based on a 'very preliminary' Department of Interior memo 'brainstorming' possible 'candidates' for monument status, and the Interior Department has said '[n]o decisions have been made about which areas, if any, might merit more serious review and consideration.'"